


Pushing the Boundaries

by Someone_aka_Me



Series: in a world that could've left us hard as metal [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Reg is a manipulative SOB, unhealthy relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 19:23:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2162211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Someone_aka_Me/pseuds/Someone_aka_Me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regulus wants to see how far Barty will go. The answer is not one he likes, in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pushing the Boundaries

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissingMommy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissingMommy/gifts).



Barty Crouch the second is young and vulnerable and nothing like his father. Regulus feels… stronger, by comparison. It's a bit intoxicating and a lot addicting and he doesn't plan to change it any time soon. He spends more and more time around the younger boy, realising as he does so just how much power he has. Barty  _idolises_  him. He looks up at him with those big dark eyes and he'll do anything Regulus says.

At first, Regulus doesn't abuse it too badly. Barty's just a kid, he tells himself, never mind that he's only one year younger. He's still learning and to take advantage of his trust would be… cruel.

But Regulus is not a Slytherin for nothing, and he begins to see ways in which Barty's loyalty would be helpful and… He can't resist.

It starts with little things — fetching things, the like — but it quickly devolves until Barty is lying to teachers to get Regulus out of class or detention, until he is suffering the results of Regulus's failures, until… Barty is barely Barty at all, but rather a more expendable version of Regulus.

It's more than a bit not good but Regulus can't bring himself to care,  _doesn't_  care.  _Doesn't_.

Except that he sort of does because those big dark eyes are kind of beautiful and, God, he's just a  _kid_.

Regulus sort of hates himself for it, but he starts pushing the boundaries. Seeing just how far Barty will go to please him.

 _Too far_ , is the answer, but it takes Regulus far too long to realise that.

By the time he realises, Barty is kneeling at the feet of a man Regulus isn't even sure he believes in anymore, fervid adoration in those big dark eyes.

And Regulus just wants to  _take it back_. He wants to make it all go away, apologise and undo what he's done, because this is the point of no return. He has molded Barty into a poor echo of who he himself used to be, who he still pretends to be.

He can't change it. It cannot be taken back. And Regulus feels  _guilty_. It settles in his stomach and curdles there, making him sick with the thought of it. He hates it; it's a weakness, a vulnerability that he can't afford.

Barty doesn't need him anymore but Regulus still cares and that's the problem. Regulus  _cares_. He isn't supposed to, never meant to, but he does. He does, and he can't make it go away.

He picked Barty apart and reassembled him in a different shape, yet Regulus is the one who's fallen. They're two parts of what's supposed to be the same story and it doesn't make sense, and yet it does.

Regulus wants out, but he doesn't feel like he can just leave Barty there, given it was Regulus who led him to the wolves.

When Kreacher comes back to him sobbing and crying with a story to tell, Regulus doesn't even hesitate. He knows this is it; this is his redemption. This is how he can save Barty. This is how he can make amends.

He doesn't exactly  _intend_  to die in the process, but he knows that it is a possibility and he cannot bring himself to care. He destroyed Barty's life. Good kid, Minister's son, he could have had it all. Regulus took that away. The least he can do is offer his own in return.


End file.
